In December 2006, Pulp and Paper International magazine reported that Advance Agro planned to expand its operations in Thailand with a 500,000 tonnes a year pulp mill and a 500,000 tonnes a year paper mill. The company completed a feasibility study in 2006, and has submitted an environmental impact assessment to the Thai authorities. Advance Agro’s managing director, Yothin Dumnernchanvanit told Pulp and Paper International that the plans would only go ahead if Advance Agro believed that there was a market for the paper: “We don’t want to collapse the market by introducing new capacity when demand is low and prices are down,” he said.

Oji Paper, one of the world’s largest pulp and paper companies, is moving into the Mekong Region. Oji Paper has established large-scale industrial tree plantation projects in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam. Here and elsewhere in the world the results are deforestation and destroyed livelihoods as the company replaces villagers’ forest and common land with its monocultures.

Thailand’s largest integrated paper producer, Siam Pulp and Paper (SPP), is planning to build a 200,000 t/yr paper mill in Amphur Nampong in Khon Kaen province, north east Thailand. Pulp for the mill will come from Phoenix Pulp and Paper’s mill also in Amphur Nampong. Phoenix is a subsidiary of SPP.